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From India to Edmonton to ORCAS!

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Looking almost like astronauts, here is a group who came out for our zodiac trip today. They have come on a journey and ended up here in beautiful Victoria no doubt to get a magical look at our sacred killer whales!



Also take a look at our cool photo wall next time your in the office!

LPod!

(complimentary eCard, click to enlarge and download)








Today during our noon Ocean Magic trip we headed to San Juan Island where both J and L Pods were spending their day. Got word that Jpod was northbound but found that Lpod was partly going southbound (at False Bay - Eagle Point) so we caught up with them. Saw several calfs traveling together near the shoreline and based on the small size and color of one, recognized it as the new Lpod calf L109 who's mother is Nugget / L55 who I did not see at the time. L109 was traveling with another youngster, and there were other individuals traveling close to shore. Noticed some speed porpoising and tail slaps by the calfs. A small group of 3 animals passed who turned out to be Racer / L72 & calf / Fluke 105 and Domino / L104. Obviously Racer / L72 was babysitting Domino / L104 and I assume the mother was off hunting nearby. It was a pleasure to see so many of the Lpod calfs today, what a treat. It's a first time for me to see the new calf who was born in March of 07.

Cool cross-shot

photo taken by me of guest S. Groenewold

photo of me taken by guest S. Groenewold i took photo of above

If you have a cool shot from a trip of an animal, staff or other please feel free to send it to us and we will put it up on our blog!

Jpod, seal, sun halo

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As we departed the Victoria inner harbour today, noticed a harbour seal chomping away on something that looked a bit like an octopus. Also saw an amazing sun halo above. Important not to look directly at the sun.

Today on our noon trip we found Jpod south Lopez Island traveling westbound to their usual feeding grounds of San Juan Island. Along the way we caught J1 traveling on his own, sprouter male Mike / J26 and saw J14 with calf Suttles / J40 (f). The animals past Colville Island as our trip came to an end. Along the way we saw some high speed feeding behavior near the shoreline including lunges and tail and cartwheeling. Some breaches occured as well.


(complimentary eCard of J16 & J42, click to download)



(Ruffles / J1)


(Slick / J16)

(J16 & calf J42)

(J16 & calf J42)

(Mako / J39)

(Blackberry / J27)

(Double Stuff / J34)

On our evening trip, Jpod was spread very wide apart hunting. Got a beautiful pass of Ruffles / J1 in warm sun and flat blue waters. Keet / J33 was fishing near Blackberry / J27 and J16 was fishing nearby as well. Caught Mako / J39 speed porpoising alone (calf 2003). Slick / J16 gave us a stunning look at her and her new calf J42. The animals remained in very spread out fashion when we left them with some of the group northbound speed porpoising and breaching along the way.

Jpod

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(Ruffles / J1)

(Granny / J2 & Blackberry J27)

(Ruffles / J1)


(Sachi / J19 & calf J41)

(Ruffles / J1)

(Mike / J26)



Jpod was hanging around their usual stomping grounds today; San Juan Island. We arrived this afternoon to find the animals traveling southbound, then northbound and then no bound. They were feeding close along the shoreline as well as a few miles out. Our good friend J1 Ruffles was on his own traveling north and south. Some lunge feeding attempts by J1 as well as sprouter male Mike / J26. Noticed that Mike / J26 was traveling with Granny / J2 and Samish / J14. Mike's fin is quite distinctive as it is quite floppy and big. Always know when Mike is approaching by his wobbly dorsal. Kinda like a big puppy with floppy ears and feet :) To our delight, we were given a beautiful spectacle as one of the females breached for us a few times. Today's behavior involved tail slapping, breaching, and a few spyhops close to the shoreline. On our way home we stopped briefly to see a lone eagle who was perched on the Oak Bay marker. Thanks to Jpod for making todays trip memorable.








This evenings trip Jpod was traveling northbound towards their typical Active Pass to Vancouver, Fraser River journey. They were steadily moving north in groups and singularly. Someone rolled over on their side sorta spy hopping kinda but not quite sure. We saw a few breaches. One of those occured near the end of our trip, unfortunately my track record is not 100% yet however please see the breaches from this afternoons trip instead. Oreo / J22 was traveling with calf born in 03 Cookie / J38. Mike / J26 was seen traveling with the group also. We left the group at Turn Point.

Elephant Seal and Lpod

Photos by Brian Glennon , Killerwhale.ca

Lpod off Victoria

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(see the salmon behind the orca in mid air)


















This morning Jpod was headed north again towards Vancouver through Active Pass and were almost out of range by the time we departed at 12:15 today. We headed out thinking that we were possibly not going to catch them however we also knew that Lpod was around but no one had yet spotted them. So we took a chance and headed out into the Juan de Fuca Strait and sure enough, our naturalist Nicola spotted half of Lpod who present in the area. They were spread apart for miles feeding. Way off in the distance I caught some breach activity by Trial Island while our friend Mega / L41 was off doing his own thing hunting. We had a beautiful look at Ino / L54. I am pretty sure I saw another larger male in the group today possibly L73 or L74 however I am not 100% sure who it was. Early on the in the trip caught some predation behavior as one of the females was airborne and when I got home I found in the photo a salmon in mid air behind the animal. I guess she bumped the fish out of the water during her attack. The animals were heading towards the Esquimalt shoreline area so we decided to check out Race Rocks in the hopes that on the way home we'd find them grouped up doing something different.

When we arrived at beautiful Race Rocks, we found some of our harbour seal friends hauled out on rocks basking in the sun. They have the appearance of a large maggot but furry and cute. After that we headed over towards Sooke area taking observing the eagles nest with the eagle sitting perched high above the nest. On our way back to Victoria, we found Lpod moving very quickly in high porpoising behavior. There was a mother and calf moving together with one group, this is not a new calf but possibly the calf born in 2005 but again I am not 100% sure. There were a few younger orcas in the group today but did not get a chance to see who they were as they were moving so quickly. One youngster breached a few hundred yards from us framing Victoria perfectly behind.

What started out as a possible no orca sighting day, turned into a "we found the orcas on the Victoria waterfront" kinda day. It was perfect. The rest of the group were out west and this group was in high porpoise activity to probably meet up with the others. We have not seen Kpod yet, we anxiously await their arrival! Tons of stuff to see today and right off the waterfront.

OM & L41

Here is an image I caught while I was on another boat today. This is of Mega L41 and the Ocean Magic

T14

T14 out kelping! Photo by Brian Glennon

T14 & Jpod

Today's complimentary eCard, click to download




(Pender / T14 above)





(Double Stuff / J34) sequence above



(Slick / J16 hunting on her own)

(Ruffles / J1)

Today the L12's (4 minus L12) were headed out west so we headed over to San Juan Island where we heard that Jpod was feeding. On the way we spotted a transient killer whale named Pender / T14. He is a solo orca who travels alone, his mother passed away a few years ago and since then he is sighted alone however is also seen traveling with girls from the Alaskan transient orca groups. Was awesome as I unexpectedly saw him lunge out of the water no doubt killing a seal as many seagulls hovered up top. He stayed milling back in forth in the same area giving us many amazing photo opportunities to photograph his impressively large profile. In the early 70's I think it was, he was captured for a short time and radio tagged however soon after they fell off. Left behind are two indentations in his fin, making him very easy to recognize. I have not seen Pender / T14 for two seasons now, was a great surprise to get another look at him.

Take a look at the Center for Whale Research's page on T14's predation of a Harbour Porpoise

We then ventured over to San Juan Island (False Bay) where Jpod was spread wide apart hunting. Caught some breaches in the distance and some tail slaps as well. A jouvenile orca (Double Stuff / J34) passed us turning upside down tail slapping. Also noticed that Slick / J16 was off hunting alone without her new calf. Many of the animals were close to shore so I didn't get a look at where the calf was but assumed was being babysat by other family members. Of course the best way to end any trip is to see such a magnificant pass by our famous largest and eldest SR; Ruffles J1. Spendid!


(Ruffles J1)

On board today were guests all the way from Mexico City! It's always wonderful to find our guests coming out to enjoy the orcas from different countries.

Jpod / Pender Island

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(Granny / J2 (mother age approx 98) & Ruffles J1 (son age approx 56)









We ventured quite the distance to catch up with Jpod who was traveling along Pender Island by the time we caught up with them. Guests on board today were delighted to see famous J1 Ruffles (around 58 years) and J2 Granny (around 98 years) who are assumed to be mother and son traveling along side by side. How sweet is that? Those two are never far apart and today we caught a beautiful glimpse of the pair swimming so close. The group was spread far apart from each other however groups of 2 to 5 were seen together. Most of the action took place a fair distance from us, as the animals were pretty close to the shoreline and we were a ways back. Our guidelines do not allow us to enter the shoreline area however we were able to see some interesting activity such as; breaches, pec slaps by J1, tail slaps and an lazy spy hop by who I thought was J1. Noticed J42 (calf born early May) and J16 (mom) swimming together as well. The crowd onboard today gave out lots of "ooo's and aaaa's and were excited to see the amazing family on their journies.

L12's But no L12 & Minke Whale

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(Mega L41 Breach Crop)








Today on yet another lovely day, we ventured to southern San Juan Island not far from Salmon Bank to find the few L12 group spread apart. Two of the ladies were kelping in the distance, playfully syphopping, bobbing at the surface and maybe even some rubbing. Some playful tailslaps and then they moved on. I could not see who it was but can only assume it was Mega L41's sister Calypso L94 and Matia L77. Mega L41 was on his own and in the distance gave us a half breach. Being such a big boy, his very rotund body seemed fairly heavy to bring fully out of the water, perhaps he was full :) He is about 30 years of age now and is probably one of the biggest of all the SR boys, just next to Ruffles J1.






After our wonderful view of the orcas we headed towards Hein Bank in search of Minke whales. I was snapping away admiring the Rhinoceros Auklets (a puffin species of bird) when all of a sudden a Minke surfaced quite close to us by surprize. I certainly was not ready for it so the image is blurry however I have included it because it was captured and we did get a look-see of the wonderful being. This animal was busy feeding. We saw the Minke a total of 2 maybe 3 times however because of their unpredictable movements was hard to get a decent photo today. A few fish balls with herds of birds indicated good feeding below the surface.

Jpod & L12's

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Our Ocean Magic's noon trip found us at San Juan Island (Pile Point, False Bay area) where Jpod was very spread out however were heading northbound. Got a decent look at J30 / Riptide who is sprouting this year. Most of the group was widely spread however half way through our trip, individuals turned south and west into the strait. Some hunting behavior; tail slaps and hard turns indicates the possibility of predation. We left Jpod spread out and feeding continuing to move south. Also had a chance to see Straitwatch out today, who is out monitoring the boating activity around the orcas.









This evenings trip we headed to Race Rocks where 4 of the L12's (Calypso / L94, Matia L77), minus L12 herself were moving northeast towards San Juan Island. Mega L41 a large male was traveling alone while his other family were spread apart also. We checked out the lighthouse and found some harbour seals hauled out enjoying the afternoon in their lazy way. L12's were now founded headed past Trial Island and were in a speed porpoising behavior. We got word that Jpod were headed our direction and were in moving quickly. We found the large group of 25 all speed porpoising westbound south of Discovery Island. The group moved momentously in a group and at times a line with J1 Ruffles taking the back part of the group. New little calf J42 was seen in the middle of the family including members Riptide / J30 and assumed mom Slick / J16, where they able to help the new little arrival move under such high energy traveling.

It was absolutely spectacular to see the family travel in such a group today. I have not yet seen such a thing and my eyes could not believe the pure magic that was before me but I felt it throughout my body.

What a day!!

Saturday June 9 , Well the weather was a little ugly with lots of rain , but the whales ! In the morning we saw Jpod near San Juan Island in a tight resting formation. Later we encountered a group of 12 Transient Killer Whales hunting near Race Rocks , to top it off we had one of the first viewings of the year of L Pod. Photos by Brian Glennon, KillerWhale.ca

Jpod : Vancouver Run

Here are some awesome captures from our Vancouver trip by naturalist Ellen;

J2 Breach

J2, known as Granny, breaching in Rosario Strait. She is the matriarch of our resident Jpod and is estimated to have been born in 1911, making her one of the oldest known killer whales in British Columbia. Our early boat was first on scene and was treated to 25 killer whales travelling south in the early morning before other boats arrived. Four generations of killer whales were present, as the 1 month old baby, J42, was also swimming among the family of whales.

photo by skipper Mark Malleson (killerwhalephotography.com)

Eagle eyes

Our late trips today had the pleasure of seeing 3 of the young orcas playing together in the kelp beds off Henry Island. We also spotted what I thought was a cormorant in the water struggling with a fish for several minutes, upon closer inspection we saw it was a bald eagle.

Photos by Brian Glennon , KillerWhale.ca

Waiting for the Cousins.

J pod continues to make us all happy by being in the area on a daily basis. Historically the rest of the Clan (K and L Pod) ,who have been away for 5 months, will make their return to the area in the coming weeks. Always very exciting. Photos by Brian Glennon , KillerWhale.ca

Jpod on the move

It was a beautiful day with the Js. Late in the day they did a quick turnaround into the flood tide after a short conference . Granny the matriarch of the pod had her faithful son by her side most of the day. Many of the pod began to porpoise through the water after the turnaround. The new calf J42 was right in the mix.

Photos by Brian Glennon , killerwhale.ca